Walking in the Footsteps of My Ancestors



Bethel Methodist Church
Detroit, Pike County, Illnois



 This weekend I had the opportunity to go inside of a church which I had only seen from the outside for the past 5 years of my genealogy research.  I visit the surrounding cemetery every year to place flowers on the graves of my ancestors.

During this year's Pike County Color Drive, the church was open to visitors.  While some of my Burlend and Croft ancestors never stepped foot in this church, they would have attend the church that was built on this location in 1843.  The first church was described as simple but fitting the needs of the members of the congregation.

The church show in this picture was built in 1883.  My Yelliott ancestors would attend this church until their deaths.  There is no electricity or running water.  There are two stoves in the church which would have provided heat in the cold Illinois winters. 
I
n the cemetery surrounding the church are the graves of six of my direct ancestors.  Buried along side of my family are many early Pike County settlers. 

My Burlend family came to Pike County after hearing letters written by George Bickerdike to his family in England. One of the Burlend's daughters who remained in England, who married Luke Yelliott, would come to America with her family when her mother returned to England in the early 1840s.  It was at that time that Rebecca Burlend, my fourth great grandmother, told her son, Edward about the trip to America and life in Pike County.

As to when my Croft family came to Pike County, I am not sure.  It is part of genealogical search to determine why they came.  George Croft was a missionary to the West Indies for some time.  It appears he returned to England before coming to America.

It is inspiring to know that I have walked where they actually walked both in times of joy and times of sorrow.  Here at this quaint little church in Pike County, Illinois